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The Royal Academy was founded in 1768 and one of its key objectives was to establish an annual exhibition, open to all artists of merit, that could be visited by the public. Music Hall songs are full of humour and this is a good example, although this character attends the exhibition he does not go to look at the paintings but rather to look at the beautiful women, with whom he hopes to participate in a bit of 'spooning'. Spooning was the Victorian term for kissing and comes from the Welsh tradition of giving a carved wooden spoon when a couple got engaged.